EA How To Build an AI Agent

The Assistant’s Assistant

Five prompts.
One working agent.

Work down the page in order. Edit the details in Step 1, copy each prompt, and paste it into Claude when instructed.

Start with Step 1 Open Claude

Before you begin

Keep these two windows open

1

Add the Project Instructions

In your Project, select Instructions. Before copying, replace everything inside angle brackets and use none for unused optional items.

Personalise this one. At minimum, complete EMAIL, TIMEZONE, MY EMAIL and URGENT WINDOW.
Project Instructions
2

Create the Daily Log

Start a Cowork conversation inside the Project. Paste this prompt and let Claude create the cloud-hosted Context file.

Create the log

Continue when Claude Daily Log.md appears under Project Context.

3

Run the Core Stage Gate

Paste this into the same Project conversation. Fix any failures before moving on.

Verify the setup
Your finish line CORE ALL CLEAR: READY TO BUILD THE DAILY START BRIEF
4

Run the Initial Context Scan

Paste this into the same Cowork conversation after the Stage Gate. Run it once to build the starting record. Do not schedule this prompt.

Load recent context
Your finish line INITIAL CONTEXT SCAN: COMPLETED
5

Create the Scheduled Task

Open Scheduled → New task → Set up manually. Name it Daily Start Brief, choose a suitable weekday schedule, keep permissions on manual approval, and paste this as its instructions.

Daily Start Brief instructions

Now run it twice

  1. Run one: check for a CONFIG: 1.1 | CLOUD | EDITABLE | … line.
  2. Run two: check that no labels, commitments or goals were duplicated.

The human loop

Confirm a few goals

After the second run, reply in that session. Change the numbers to match the result you received.

Example reply

Core workshop complete

You have built one agent with one proactive routine.

Optional connectors, additional routines and automatic approval come after the core double-run is clean.

Return to Claude
Jeremy Dalton

Created by

Jeremy Dalton

AI & Emerging Tech
Advisor, Author and Speaker

jeremy@xrhq.com www.jeremydalton.ai